Friday 22 March 2013

Graphs of our finance

Below are some of the graphs produced for our finance.

And if you follow this link it will take you to the finance page on our website where you can download the spreadsheet.

http://mnmlmgmt.wix.com/group9#!breakdown-of-our-finance/c970




Finance


‘How will you justify commerciality? Where will you get funding?’

Start up

Minimal management was set up in 2018 by the 5 current partners. In an effort to reduce the company’s debts the founding partners each invested £40,000. The business used this initial £200,000 to buy its office space. This initial cost is more costly than renting the property however this will reduce the practices running costs throughout the years. This saving means as a practice we can provide the same high quality service at a lower cost to you the client.

Over 5 Years

As a company Minimal Management has big plans for the future. Our successful business is constantly looking at ways to improve and expand, and by 2025 we look to expand from our Nottingham based practice to other major cities in the UK. We have projected a steady growth in the company and our Profit & Loss predictions for the next 5 years show a strong income. This profit will be invested into the company to help set up other practices across the UK and Europe. With all the capital (in forms of property and profit) we aim to attract investment to help with our development.

‘What profits could you anticipate?’

We have anticipated the following profit over the next 5 years of our company.
Year 1 - £270,880 Profit
Year 2 - £573,400 Profit
Year 3 - £891,920 Profit
Year 4 - £986,560 Profit
Year 5 - £1,067,720 Profit
Full details and downloads can be found on our company website


‘What will be the costs (capital and running costs)?’
Due to our company owning their property they will incur no rental costs. The cost of running the practice can be seen here.





‘What might be the implications of a continued recession?’

Effects of a recession
In any practice there is always uncertainty when it comes to the number of projects the practice will undertake at any one time. During times when the practice has a low work load Minimal Management will undertake a number of measures that are in the company’s best interests.
      One of the first steps will be to encourage staff members to undertake their CPD.
      Encourage staff members to take their holiday leave during these periods.
      To improve the sales of the practice the marketing and advertising department will receive further finance in an effort to increase sales. This measure should attract more clients to practice.
      In a recession that dramatically affects the practice and the building sector; further measures will be undertaken, such as placement staff will be made redundant.

Economic boom
During an economic boom the aim of the practice will be to maximise the number of projects undertaken. By increasing the number of projects that are undertaken it will in turn increase the partnerships profit.
The simplest method to increase the profit and production of the company will be to hire further staff. The staff chosen will be dependent on the practices requirements at the time of an economic boom.
Part of the 5 year plan of the practice is to expand the company so that it has offices in other major cities across the UK. The current plan aims to achieve this goal at the end of our 5 year plan, however should an economic boom take place before this time it will help accelerate the process and the company will have an opportunity to expand sooner than planned. On the other hand following a recession the aim of expanding within 5 years may become unrealistic.


Thursday 21 March 2013

Group meeting 9

March 18th, 2013

Today we made the poster, the business cards and the handouts. We've also updated the website with newer information for each individual page.

Group meeting 8

March 15th, 2013

Today we've started putting all our information together. We've made the layout of our presentation board and we've established what else we need to do for the presentation, such as handouts, business cards, laptops and the A3 booklet.

_______________
All members present.

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Group meeting 7

March 13th, 2013

Today we've written a list of what we should have in the exhibition.
-2 x A1 panels
-A laptop (plus a spare one in case of low battery)
-Business cards
-A3 booklet
-Smaller booklet about our team

We've also spoken to Chris Heuvel. He said the A3 booklet is going to be the thing we submit to the tutors in the end, so most information about our project should be in there. The panels should show a bit of info about each part of the company: design, technology, finance, marketing and business management. We should not advertise our weaknesses.
We've set to meet tomorrow with each of us doing an A3 page with what we think should be put on the panels.

____________
All members present.

Group meeting 6

March 6th, 2013

Today we've come up with a name for our company and a logo. Based on that we've designed our business cards. We've also written the company profile on the website.
Next week we should discuss how to organise our presentation in the exhibition.

_______________
All members present.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Group meeting 5

February 20, 2013

Today we looked through the questions we were advised to look at for the business plan.


What is your product? What is the ‘market’?
We would use abandoned or old buildings, for example office buildings no longer in use, and create minimalist dwelling spaces within.

Who are your ‘clientele’ (or might be in the future)? 
Students and young professionals.

What is your unique selling point (USP)? 
(TBC)

How does your business fit into the Nottingham community?
Office buildings aren't required, due to advanced technology. Also both universities in Nottingham have plenty of placement staff.

What is the local competition available to your potential clients?
A lot of companies are doing the same thing, but none are actually based in Nottingham. Even though we've been established for 2 years, we've already won a cosiderable amount of competitions in this field.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?  
(We said we would have one for each of the domain we are responsible for and a few for the company as a whole)
Company:

Strengths
-Local based company
-Wide clientele
-Based on individual work, we've gained some reputation
-Experience in working with international companies
-Latest technology

Weaknesses
-More or less similar background
-Need for outside help from experts in other fields
-We haven't been established for as long as other similar companies.

How will you justify commerciality? Where will you get funding?
(TBC)

What profits could you anticipate? 
(TBC)

What will be the costs (capital and running costs)?
(TBC)

How will you manage your company: private/public; ownership/partnership?
Private partnership.

How will you market/promote your company? 
(TBC)

What might be the implications of a continued recession?
(TBC)

How might you diversify or change course if needed? 
(TBC)

How might you expand your business activities?
(TBC)

What is your group /image/style? What is your design ethos? 
(TBC)

What evidence do you have of your own career development since graduation (your career plan)?
(TBC)

What is your attitude to sustainability and carbon reduction? 
(TBC)

What kind of an employer will you be?
(TBC)

How do you see the role of the professional institutions? (RIBA & CIAT)
(TBC)

________________
Absent:
Nicholas La Rosa

Group meeting 4

February 13, 2013

For today we worked on our profile statements, in which we've included a brief history of how we came to create the company and what experience we have gained over the years prior to the establishment of the company. We also started putting the website together, including the profile pages and some examples of our work.

For next meeting we need to think of our strengths and weaknesses and also think of a name and a logo for our company.

__________________
Absent:
Daniela Carpov

Group meeting 3


February 6, 2013

We had a tutorial today with Chris Heuvel. He helped us with the idea of making the business plan. 

We would focus on the time between 2020 and 2025. 
We would need to concentrate on the financial part, and try to imagine how technology would develop in that period of time. 
Would we grow in those 5 years or would we stay the same? 
Would we have offices in other cities? Nottingham would be considered the main headquarters though. 
Who would we employ? 
What would the political situation be like in the future?


We were also advised to reference all the pictures that we use on the website.

For the next meeting, we decided we need to work on our Profile page for the website.

_______________
All members present.

Group meeting 2

January 30, 2013

Today we spoke more in depth about what our company would focus on. We would specialize in small spaces and try to create minimal designs within these spaces to ensure maximum functionality. We would also aim for a green architecture.

For the future, we mentioned the possibility of creating a booklet to represent our company. We would include an article about our company, a small profile of each of us and some examples of our work experiences.

We also raised the question of who is our main clientele. We decided it would be students and young professionals.


________________
All members present.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Group meeting 1

January 23, 2013

We had our first meeting today. The group members are:

-Vinanti Kothari
-Fehintola Odeyemi
-Daniela Carpov
-Aaron Bellamy
-Nicholas La Rosa

We've discussed the following part of our initial idea for the product:
-Product
-Clientele
-Unique Selling Point

By 2020, we assume that the design will mainly focus on:
-Maximizing small sites
-Links to green belt

Please see the video as a source of inspiration:

Two Romanian architects transforming a 40 sq. m apartment into a "superhome".
http://adevarul.ro/life-style/stil-de-viata/cum-transformat-apartament-40mp-intr-o-superlocuinta-doi-arhitecti-romani-8_50fce06a51543977a98698d5/index.html#

We've divided the responsibilities as follows:
-Design - Daniela Carpov
-Finance - Aaron Bellamy
-Marketing - Fehintola Odeyemi
-Project management and administration - Vinanti Kothari
-Technology - Nicholas La Rosa
-Website and IT support - group input

___________
Absent:
Nicholas La Rosa